The Possession-Spoon Chef Feeds the Empire - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 13
It was the same at Lordship Castle.
Even the hardest labor became unbearable unless he could focus on something with an almost manic intensity.
She understood well enough that crushing isolation, being left alone while the world moved on around him, that terrible sensation of freezing in place while everyone else flowed forward into their own lives.
“But if you keep going like this, you’ll hurt yourself.”
Yet she couldn’t simply allow Bael to spiral out of control.
His eyes widened in surprise.
“So…”
Luciella trailed off, reaching into her pocket to withdraw a small vial.
“Whenever you get those thoughts again, eat this.”
She pulled out a single small, round piece of chocolate from the bottle and pressed it directly into Bael’s mouth.
“Tell me if you need more. I’ll keep showing you flavors you can’t help but focus on.”
And without waiting for a response, she left the room.
……
Bael’s eyes unconsciously traced her retreating figure. The color of her hair lingered like a phantom afterimage—the same shade as sunlight now vanished.
Left alone in blank stupor, Bael moved his lips slowly.
The moment his teeth made contact, the chocolate shell—coated so thinly it seemed like glass—shattered with a pleasant crisp sound.
Through the gap, soft caramel syrup surged forth, and immediately after, the nutty crunch of toasted nuts followed, waves of layered flavor crashing over his palate.
It was precisely the flavor and texture he loved.
Yet it was also something he’d never tasted before, and that newness struck him with genuine wonder.
She must have taken considerable care in making it. For the person who would eat it.
For him alone.
Bael bit his lip hard and shut his eyes tight.
So that was it.
A new food. A new flavor.
In this place where he was left alone, the thought of simply freezing in place was unbearably painful.
He had hated nothing more than his world standing still while everyone else’s moved on.
Crunch.
Bael bit down once more on the chocolate fragment remaining in his mouth.
What enveloped his tongue now was an entirely new sensation seeping into his locked-away world.
He understood now.
Why mornings no longer felt as hateful as before these past few days.
Why his heart had sunk when she said she wouldn’t be coming.
Luciella was the only person who had forced something entirely new into Bael’s closed world in years.
Because of her, his world, frozen rigid in silence, had begun to creak and move bit by bit.
It was change. It was the smallest, most fragile hope.
* * *
“……Seems like you’ve gained weight.”
Splash!
At Luciella’s words, Bael spat out the water he’d been holding in his mouth.
He’d never heard such a shameful thing said about him in all his life.
Even Teodo, his cousin whom he despised, and even Osborn, his uncle, had never hurled such an insult to his face.
“What did you just…… what did you say to me……”
“I said you look like you’ve gained weight lately.”
“……What nonsense is that?”
As Bael looked down at his reddened face and body in dismay, Luciella shook her head and added,
“No, I don’t mean you got flabby—I mean you look healthier than before.”
“Healthier?”
“You’re still too thin and need to gain more weight, but your collarbone isn’t as prominent as it used to be, and your arms look thicker.”
Was that what she meant?
Not that he’d become unsightly and bloated, but that he’d actually developed normal, healthy flesh on his frame?
Bael’s stern expression finally softened.
“See? Once you cut back on training, your body started recovering.”
Luciella was right.
Since he’d limited his Sword Training to twice a day, his body had actually begun to gain strength.
“But I still haven’t found the root cause…”
As Luciella’s expression darkened, the sensitive Bael caught her gaze and shifted his eyes toward his legs.
Seeing this, Luciella pressed her temples.
It was fortunate that his strength had returned, but the fundamental problem remained completely unresolved.
The Status Window still displayed its pitiless warning.
[Symptom: Toxin coursing through the entire body.]
Without eliminating the source of the poison, death was absolutely, positively certain.
She scanned the room once more. Probably the hundred-and-whatever-th time she’d done this.
There was nothing wrong with this room. It would be fair to say it was filled entirely with confirmed harmless objects.
Cough!
Luciella coughed absently.
She turned her gaze naturally toward the window.
Was the air…… stale?
Come to think of it, it had always been like this whenever she came here.
The small window was set so high that her hands couldn’t reach it, and it was almost always closed.
It probably had nothing to do with the toxin, but still—didn’t the room need fresh air?
“The window…… cough, do you always keep it closed?”
Bael turned his head instead of answering.
Luciella tilted her head and, to stop the coughing, poured herself a glass of water from the bottle beside her and drank it.
“……Huh?”
The cough stopped, but the water was lukewarm.
Other rooms were kept cold.
Only then did she recall one strange fact.
She had never once seen a servant in this room.
She understood that it was out-of-the-way and the corridor was desolate, which explained why few people came here, but still—this was the master’s own chamber, and she ought to have crossed paths with his personal attendant multiple times; yet she never had.
“Bael, this room……”
“Servants barely come here. I prefer it that way.”
Bael answered as if he already knew what she was thinking.
“Someone comes every other day or so, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Every other day?”
This was the direct heir’s chamber.
Shouldn’t an attendant be in and out at least twenty times a day?
Especially since Bael couldn’t use his legs—shouldn’t they be checking on him constantly?
Luciella turned her gaze again, toward the small table at the bedside.
A glass from yesterday still sat there, uncleared.
“You…… are you being neglected?”
“It’s unnecessary. Better that they don’t come.”
Bael answered curtly, then added a moment later,
“There was trouble last time. I’m trying to avoid running into Osborn. But he’s the one who manages the hired staff.”
“Even so…”
Tap, tap.
Just as I was about to say something, footsteps echoed from the corridor.
Bael’s expression turned cold.
Click—
A boy of seventeen or eighteen with red hair and freckles, his eyes slit like a serpent’s, entered without knocking.
“Bael? I’ve come to fetch something.”
The young servant, who dispensed with even basic courtesy, let alone proper deference, opened the wardrobe on his own and pulled out a Cloak.
“This is the one the Duke gave to his grandsons years ago, right? Teodo’s is worn out, so he told me to borrow this one. Since anyway……”
The boy’s eyes raked over Bael from top to bottom.
It was the disrespectful gaze of someone saying: You don’t have any use for it anyway.
Bael kept his expression rigidly composed and said nothing.
It was Luciella whose eyes widened in disbelief.
‘Wow, what manners.’
“Wait, aren’t you that cook?”
The boy slung the Cloak carelessly over his shoulder, then suddenly noticed Luciella and extended his hand, grasping hers roughly.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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